Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you'd like to participate on our forums by joining in the conversation, please Register Now! Be sure to visit our FAMOUS Roll Call forums, where you can meet other cruisers sailing with you and share a tour or shore excursion and SAVE MONEY!

I've read before that the best way to handle someone not being able to make their cruise (after final pmt) is to be a no-show. I have two ladies in my family group who are now over 85, they are booked in a cabin as 1st and 2nd along with a 3rd passenger. None of us have ever needed to cancel before, but I realize that at this point, the odds are increasing. Make no mistake, no one wants to cancel - we ALL want and expect to go on our cruise. But IF the situation were to arise, I want to handle it properly. If someone needs to cancel, will insurance (independent policy, not cruise line ins) still reimburse a no-show? What I'm trying to avoid is the 3rd passenger being penalized by having to pay more if one of the other passengers has to cancel. BUT, I don't want to advise someone to be a no-show and have it turn out that it breaks some insurance rule and now their claim is denied.

Anyone know how this works with no-shows and travel insurance? Any knowledge or advice would be appreciated.

Others with experience I'm sure will chime in...but I would expect the insurance company would require a doctor's note showing medical care was required that prevented the person from cruising. The insurance policy would list the provisions for filing a claim. I would expect some to be stricter than others. Though I don't know if this qualifies as a "no show." ???

I like "for work reasons" coverage, so that if I was needed at work, I would be able to cancel (this is a real possibility). The "cancel for any reason" coverage seems to be a bit pricey IMO.

Not quite clear. I am assuming you are referring to after final payment? If they no show, have private insurance, the traveler does not get stuck with extra costs, RCI gets their money and the independent insurer determines if monies, under the policy are due back to the persons cancelling.

Three people in the cabin. After final payment. IF passenger #2 now has to cancel for a covered reason (we already have an independent ins policy in place), will RCI require passenger #3 to now pay a higher fare since only 2 people will be in the cabin? Maybe this is where I am mistaken and worrying about something that won't even happen. Hmm... RCI already has their money at this point. So in this scenario, we don't even have to do a no-show... it wont matter. Right? (duh, me)

I just don't want to screw this up for anyone. I'm responsible for all of the arrangements and understanding how everything works.

No, RCCL shouldn't require passenger #3 to pay a higher fare.....RCCL will still have in their pocket the full fare from passengers 1 and 2 and the lower fare of passenger 3. Travel insurance will refund passenger #2s travel costs (if all were covered).

Three people in the cabin. After final payment. IF passenger #2 now has to cancel for a covered reason (we already have an independent ins policy in place), will RCI require passenger #3 to now pay a higher fare since only 2 people will be in the cabin? Maybe this is where I am mistaken and worrying about something that won't even happen. Hmm... RCI already has their money at this point. So in this scenario, we don't even have to do a no-show... it wont matter. Right? (duh, me)

I just don't want to screw this up for anyone. I'm responsible for all of the arrangements and understanding how everything works.

Being a no-show or not can certainly matter to the person cancelling. The insurer will only pay the penalties in place at the time the person has to cancel. So if the event that is going to cause the cancellation happens when the penalty is only 50% of the cruise fare but she doesn't cancel the cruise and is a no-show (at which point the penalty is 100% of the cruise fare) she'll be forfeiting half of what the insurance would have paid. And insurers can ask for written proof of the date of cancellation so there's no fudging this.

The problems only occur if you go down to one person in a single cabin. Some insurers cover single supplements, some don't, some cover them only if everyone in the cabin is insured. Some cruise lines charge single supplements for no-shows (thereby "double-dipping") some just regard the fare of the no-show as forfeit. In such cases, you would need to call both the insurer and the cruise line to figure out the proper way to handle it.

Since you would probably go from 3 to 2, none of that will probably apply. Passenger 3 cancels her trip and files her claim, just like she would normally, and passengers 1 and 2 don't need to do a thing.

Ok, thanks for all of the input, guys. I wasn't thinking too straight in my original question. I was worried that #3 would be forced to become and PAY the #2 fare. So then I wondered if the no-show thing would come into play.

I now see that no-show scenarios only occur when you have just 2 passengers in a cabin and #1 is looking at having to pay singly-occupancy rates. Got it now.

Thank you, cruiseco, for mentioning that the insurance will only cover the amount not refundable within the cruise lines cancellation policy -- I had forgotten about that. Good reminder.

Whew -- I think I have it all straight now. I truly am not trying to fudge anything. I just want to make sure that the info I pass along to those in my traveling group is accurate and thorough. The ages of these 2 ladies has me trying to think of and plan for any possible situation. Thanks again!

In the OP's situation though, if 1 person were to cancel out of a 3 person cabin/booking,, wouldn't
A) Insurance would only reimburse at the 3rd person rate
B) Charge any additional monies to the remaining 2 to ensure full payment on a double occupancy cabin

Correct, insurance would only re-imburse the person who cancelled. And that's all that would be necessary, since as long as there are two people in the cabin, it's considered "fully occupied." The other two people wouldn't be charged anything additional.

In the OP's situation though, if 1 person were to cancel out of a 3 person cabin/booking,, wouldn't
A) Insurance would only reimburse at the 3rd person rate
B) Charge any additional monies to the remaining 2 to ensure full payment on a double occupancy cabin

Just asking for clarification.

A third-party insurer will pay the person's loss, whatever it is. They really don't care about 1st, 2nd or 3rd person.

For example, say there's three in the cabin with the .following cost breakdown:

1) $1000
2) $1000
3) $700

When the booking was made, however, all three decided to split the cost of the cabin equally -- each putting in $900

As long as the person cancelling the trip can provide to the insurer proof of payment for the $900 (credit card statements or cancelled checks) he/she is fine.

The cruise line's insurance is way different. No matter who cancels, it's always that third person fare that's taken off the booking and the remaining passengers (maybe in this case they were originally #1 and #3) are now re-invoiced at the double occupancy rate. Whether or not they have to pay more depends on how they are handling payment. In the example above, if #3 cancels #1 and #2 will each have to kick in an additional $100 to bring their contribution up to $1000 each from the agreed-upon $900.

Cruise line insurance is less flexible in these cases -- no matter who cancels that person is always designated as the third (reduced rate) passenger. Let's say #3 cancels and the penalty is 100% of the cruise fare -- $700. The cancelling passenger (who chipped in $900 in our example above) is thinking "wait a minute. I've got credit card receipts showing I paid the cruise line $900 and I'm only getting back $700. What's the deal?" The deal is that the insurer is going to tell him/her to collect that overpaid $200 from the others -- it's not their problem.

Whether or not the cruise line makes any remaining passengers kick in more money depends on where they stand with the penalty schedule and how the cabin will be re-fared. If all the monies have been paid in and if they are subject to a 100% penalty, if one passenger has to cancel no one will be asked to pay an additional amount. Generally this is more of a problem when a double occupancy cabin is reduced to single occupancy. It's very rarely a problem when a triple or quad occupancy cabin is reduced to double occupancy.

cruiseco -- Well done, very good explanation. This is good info to know about the cruise lines insurance, it's probably one of those things you wouldn't discover until you're in the situation. We have never used the cruise lines insurance and with this in mind (as well as loads of other reasons), I don't think we ever will now unless there is no other option.

klfrodo -- In our situation, each person paid the fare assigned to them ($1,100 / $1,100 / $500). The 3rd person paid the typical reduced fare (as agreed upon between the 3 of them since she was having a difficult time affording to still come, being newly divorced). Anyway, we have independent insurance and I have everyone covered for their individual costs (including airfare). What I was worried about is if something happened at the last minute, AFTER final payments, causing #2 to cancel (shes 87! you just never know)... would RCI force #3 to now pay the higher $1,100 fare. I worried it would be a hardship thrown onto #3 at the last minute. I was forgetting that RCI would already have their money, and wouldn't care at that point. Claims and reimbursement would be between #2 and her insurance company. We all understand that if any of them cancel before final pmts are made, the remaining 2 will need to pay full fare.

I tried to keep my question simple and ended up making a mess of it. Sorry about that... but thank you for all of the great information. Very helpful!

As long as everyone understands that if one person cancels, you are only getting $500 back from the insurance company (no matter who it is that cancels), you'll be fine. I would have mentioned this in my original response, but I forgot that some companies charge reduced fares for passengers beyond two...

Take a look at the language in your policy. For example, the CSA Luxe policy specifically states:

Quote:

We will pay your additional cost as a result of a change in the per-person occupancy rate for prepaid travel arrangements if a Traveling Companion's Covered Trip is canceled and your Covered Trip is not canceled.

In this case, it wouldn't matter what the cruise line did about the cost; if #3 was covered by this policy and #2 cancelled, #3 would be protected.